


in any universe

by Skyepilot



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bisexuality, Blow Jobs, Cooking, Coping, Desk Sex, Drinking, Driving, Eating, F/M, Falling In Love, First Time, Flirting, Friends to Lovers, Hotel Sex, Hotels, Humor, Light Dom/sub, Loss, Love Letters, Meldrew, Missions, Office, Role Reversal, SHIELD, Secret Relationship, Sex, Skye | Daisy Johnson's Superpowers, Soulmates, Sparring, Training, Undercover, Undercover as a Couple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2019-05-09 04:04:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 11,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14708730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyepilot/pseuds/Skyepilot
Summary: Coulson finds Daisy and asks her to join his team. This is going to be a hiatus series that has vignettes with the scenario that fixing the time loop created another timeline, and Coulson is still alive in many of the others.





	1. Intro

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coulson comes to take Daisy back with him.

She is supposed to be interrogating him.

But it's too soon. The pain still stings underneath her skin, heaviest around her heart.

Leaving Earth behind, she thought that at least it would feel familiar, starting over again. One of many times.

And here he is. Right in front of her.

Or someone who looks just like him.

"Who are you?" she asks.

"I told you, I'm Phil Coulson. Agent of SHIELD," he replies, looking up at her curtly from the desk, his fingers locked together.

She was the only one he would talk to. He said it was to minimize the damage. To what, she's not sure.

He's wearing a suit, his grey one. And his hand. It looks like he still has his hand.

His SHIELD badge sits on the table between them.

"I'm here to find you," he tells her. "Quake."

They found him banging around in one of the compartments near the hangar, trapped inside and asking for help.

"How did you get on our ship?" she asks him, crossing her arms.

"That's classified," he tells her with a smirk, and she has to turn away, because he sounds just like the Coulson she just had to leave behind.

"Was it something I said?" he asks her in a soft voice. "Or something I'm not saying?"

"Because Phil Coulson is dead," she tells him, her back to him. "And you're sitting here, reminding me, and I just-"

"I'm sorry," he tells her, so sincerely, and she looks up at the ceiling of the pod to force the tears back inside her eyes. "My Daisy is gone, too."

" _Your_ Daisy?" she asks sharply, turning back around to him. "So you came here to find a replacement for _your_ Daisy?"

"No," he tells her, offering a sad smile. "That's not possible."

She stares at him, like he's a mirror.

Then she nods, slowly, and sits down in the chair across from him.

  
###

  
"It's Coulson?" Mack asks her, a tinge of nerves in his voice.

"It's _a_ Coulson," Daisy answers, then sighs heavily. "He's not sharing much else, but-"

"The bloodwork checks out," Simmons interrupts. "He even has traces of the GH-325."

"Did we do something to the timeline?" Elena asks, warily, looking between them. "Is this something else we've done?"

"What does he want?" Simmons asks, staring at Daisy, like she's already worked it out.

"He asked me to come with him," she says, breaking their mutual stare, to flick her eyes over at Mack.

Mack raises his eyebrows and uncrosses his arms. "To do what?"

"He said that he has a mission. That they, that _he_ , lost his Daisy, and that he was sent to find me."

"He found you," Elena says with a smile, then a small laugh, putting her fingers against her mouth. "He still found a way to get back to you, even now."

"It's not Coulson," she tells her, shaking her head, not wanting to believe. "He's not my Coulson."

"He's Coulson," Elena says back to her with a shrug. "What are you waiting for?"

"We're hurtling through space," Piper reminds them. "Where exactly are we supposed to let you off?"

"He says there's a window," Daisy tells her. "When it's closed, he's gone. That's it."

"They must have the monoliths," Simmons tells them. "They were in the Lighthouse when we arrived. The black monolith was with SHIELD."

"We only changed one possibility," Elena tells her. "But what if we caused something to happen to others-"

"Do you trust him?" Mack asks, cutting her off, not wanting to speculate further. "I know that losing Coulson was, _is_ , going to take time-"

The fact is, they can't reach Coulson.

He could already be gone, and she won't have any way of knowing until they return.

 _If_ they ever return from space.

"If there is a way that I can help him, the way he helped me-" she stops because she still can't talk about it yet.

How it felt like he gave up everything.

That it almost seems like a betrayal, that she never had a choice.

And she's supposed to just move on with her life now that he's gone.

"Daisy, do it," Elena tells her, touching her arm. "Do it, and don't look back."

The truth is: she had already made up her mind.

 

###

 

"So what Level are you?" she asks him, as they walk through the Hub together.

"Level 7," he tells her, then stares at her when she smiles. "Why?"

"Does that mean I'm Level 7, too, or is that also 'classified'?"

He stops them at the door and swipes his card as the security panel opens it for them.

"You're an asset," he says, putting his hand out to let her go first. "For the moment."

"Oh, you have no idea," she tells him, and watches him smirk as he follows after her.


	2. not my daisy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy has to save Phil on a mission to infiltrate AIM.

"You know what I miss the most about her?" he tells her, as she puts pressure on the wound in his shoulder.

"What?" Daisy asks him, glancing up at him to check the color in his face.

"Everything," he says, with a smile, his eyes widening slightly at her expression, as he starts to slump against the back wall.

He doesn't talk to her much about this. It means that he must think he's hurt pretty badly.

"Just everything?" she says in a taunting voice. "Sounds kind of vague..."

She watches his brows draw together in a deep frown, like he's deeply offended as the elevator reaches the bottom floor.

Raising her hand in front of them, she lets him lean on her, which he does, hesitantly.

The doors open and she uses her powers to trap the nanobullets that are rained on them. It requires a lot of concentration to modulate her wave so they can't get through.

"Didn't think they'd let us go without a fight," she says, targeting the individual AIM agents as she pulls Coulson along after her.

"You need to get the formula to Fury," he says, looking at the vial in her hand. "It's the only way to connect them. Leave me."

"Not happening," she tells him, looking him over when the hallway is clear. "We don't leave people behind, Phil."

"Agent Phil to you," he tells her, just before he stumbles, and passes out, forcing her to drop the vial and catch him in her arms.

"Dammit," she stops and props him up against the wall, sliding him down slowly to the floor.

There is blood on the wall, the bullet went all the way through.

"I didn't come all this way to lose you again," she whispers close to him, working him out of his jacket, and then tearing off the sleeve of his shirt, shredding it to wrap it around the wound on his shoulder.

"You're not my Daisy," he slurs, opening his heavy lidded eyes to look at her, and she can see tears in them.

"Still, wouldn't want to let your Daisy down," she tells him, then hauls him up and sticks the vial under his belt, and struggles to get him in a fireman's carry.

She moves them together out the doors.

This Fury was recruiting. Preparing for something that he saw coming from another point in the future.

A multi-national corporation hiding behind techno-anarchism, getting richer as the world became more destabilized.

The HYDRA connections. And there was another alien intelligence out there, pulling all the strings.

He sent Coulson into another timeline for her. He said that they needed Daisy there, at any cost.

She also knows Fury has a soft spot for Coulson, and that he had shut himself off. He told her so.

It's still not clear to her what exactly his Daisy was to him, but she knows enough.

She knows when he leaves to go visit her grave, how when he comes back he seems a little lost.

And he is enough like her Coulson, that she can still read him like a book, even through his moods and his deflecting humor.

She knows what it's like to lose the person you love the most.

When they make it to the office building lobby it's crowded. People trying to flee the scene, and it was supposed to be more black ops than this.

But then they had to go and grab Coulson.

She knows she'll hear it from Fury later, but she'll try to stay out of sight, and she makes their way to the basement garage instead.

Most of the vehicles are gone. The only thing that's left is something very expensive. And very fast.

Setting Coulson down on the hood, she looks at his unconscious body for a moment.

"It's not like it's my first rodeo," she tells him, as she shatters the glass with her powers.

The keys are still inside, tucked safely just where a valet would put them so they could get to them easily.

She opens the passenger's side and gets Coulson in, slides the seatbelt across him carefully as he moves slightly in pain.

"I'll have to tell you, sometime, about how I boosted two cars just to save my Coulson."

Then she shuts the door, and goes to her side.

She gets behind the wheel, and peels out as goes from zero to sixty out of the garage.


	3. a coulson thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy wakes up in the Retreat.

"You can't just make these choices for me."

"Why?" he says back, challenging her. "I'm your handler, it's pretty much my job."

"Because you're not him!"

Coulson rolls his eyes at her, and crosses his arms in front of himself, then sighs, rubbing a hand across his face.

"No, I'm not."

She watches him slide his fingers down his arm, almost like he's hugging himself or mimicking a familiar touch.

Tired, she looks around the cabin and stares at the familiarity of it. Of the memories it's making her relive.

"Did you inject her with GH-325?" she asks him, with a toss of her head.

"Yes," he tells her, transfixed, sitting slowly down on the couch beside her, but giving her space.

"Did she tell you that it didn't matter, if it meant we were both still alive?" she tells him, feeling tears threatening again.

"Something like that," he says quietly. "I'm sorry that I ICED you, but, I didn't want to lose you. I can't watch that. I know how far you'll go."

"Is this just, like, a Coulson thing now?" she asks, daring to look at him, and seeing the expression again.

Like he's lost.

"Hey," she tells him, touching his wrist, as he flinches slightly. "Do you think Fury had you find me, because of this?"

"So I'd stop moping and get my ass in gear again?" he tells her. "Probably."

"No, I mean, that we would make sure to protect each other. That us remembering, would..."

"He didn't know your Coulson was dead," he says solemnly. "Daisy," he starts, then realizes the absurdity of saying it like that. " _My_ Daisy died saving me. It wasn't supposed to go like that."

"Yeah, it's really not," she tells him drawing her knees up to her chin under the blanket, getting lost in her own thoughts.

He sniffs a bit, she can tell he's getting emotional, and he gets to his feet. "I bet you're starving from using your powers like that."

"I am," she tells him, and watches him start to unbutton his sleeves and move into the kitchen.

"Did you leave her here, when she first discovered her powers?" she calls after him.

"Yes," he says, turning back across his shoulder. "I had another mission. It was a mistake."

She nods, as he starts to get out the bread and goes to the fridge, and she smiles for a moment.

"Did you ever tell her what the secret ingredient was?"

He has to think about it for a moment, but he doesn't answer her.

"I'm sorry," she tells him, throwing off the covers and getting up from the couch.

She comes to stand beside him while he sets the ingredients out on the counter, then sighs and turns around to face her, blocking her view with his body.

"But, you're going to tell me," she says to him. "To make up for what you did."

The corner of his mouth turns up in an almost smile.

She hops up onto the counter beside him.


	4. nick and nora

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy goes undercover with Coulson for the first time.

"You seem nervous."

"I've never done undercover with you before," she tells him, staring ahead at the casino entrance.

"We me, or with Coulson?"

"Both," she tells him and walks through the security checkpoint.

"So I still might have a chance to impress you after all," he tells her when he meets her on the other side, straightening his tie again.

"Is that what you want? To impress me?" she tells him teasingly. "If you really want to impress me, you'll fill out my field reports."

Still, he does look pretty nice in the tuxedo. Although, it's not like it's her favorite. Not that she has a favorite.

Or thoughts about her older, handsome boss. _Again_. Just when things are starting to get easier.

And there's no way he's trying to impress her, he hasn't even mentioned Lola once.

"No go. I had to fill out my own field reports for years," he tells her, steering them to the cages so they can get their chips.

They slip back into their undercover personas, as Coulson takes care of things for her, and she spots their mark at a table, surrounded by his security detail.

She moves in next to the security on one side and puts her chips down, as Coulson stands behind her and watches the other people examine them, trying to work it out.

But they've practiced at it, and it shouldn't make her so nervous to pretend being something that she's not.

It feels like she's done it for most of her life.

The man next to Daisy moves in closer, sliding up the sleeve of his jacket so she can see his too expensive watch, to offer a hand to make an introduction to her.

But he's not their mark.

"Darling, just remember, I'm here to make sure you don't lose any of the money I married you for," Coulson says, leaning between them to kiss her on the cheek.

She glances over at their mark watching, and stares back at Coulson, still wearing the smirk that's so familiar.

They had stayed up late the night before reviewing the mission with the television on in the background.

It's a line from the movie they watched. He kept stopping to laugh at it, distracted for some reason.

Ordering food up from room service and insisting that they practice the dancing part as the best way to get the mark's fingerprints.

"What are you drinking?" she asks him, turning around to face him as he moves behind her again.

"Nothing," he answers.

"Oh, that's a shame," she says, moving closer, like she might kiss him on the mouth, then pushes some chips in.

She sees him walk away and circle around the table, watching. How it seems like he stands up straighter when he realizes he's in her line of vision.

"He must be quite good," the man with the watch says beside her, fixing his eyes on her again.

"Yes. He makes me laugh. All the time,' she answers, and then rolls the dice.

When Coulson comes back much later with a drink, he lets her take a huge sip from it, then she feels his hands slide around her waist pulling her a little off balance, before he stumbles into one of the security detail.

The much larger man opens up his jacket to flash a gun, as the rest of the guests get immediately uncomfortable.

"Hey, no need for that," Coulson says, waving him off. "I mean, my wife isn't bothered, but guns make me squeamish."

She laughs and then looks at their mark again, his slightly amused expression, as Coulson ignores his guard, acting drunk and pulling Daisy in closer.

Asking her to dance, under his breath, like they're the only people in the room.

The dealer is waiting on her.

She lifts the dice to let Coulson blow on them first.


	5. desperate and reckless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy and Coulson get yelled at by Fury.

It's the day after a particularly rough mission.

Phil is still sporting some of the bruises on his face as a reminder.

And she sees her reflection on the glass as she passes through the Hub, not looking too hot herself.

They know they're both going to get chewed out by Fury.

Separately, because he says when he's tried to do it together, there is just a little too much smart ass in the room for his taste.

"How is that, uh, healing?" Coulson asks, pointing to the knife mark on her neck as they both stand outside the office.

"It's fine," she shrugs. "I've had worse. How is your whole side of your face?"

He's kind of squinting through a black eye, and she feels terrible that she couldn't protect him, when AIM took her powers away.

And grateful that he didn't leave her alone with them.

The door is opened, and she's directed inside.

"I thought I told you to keep him out of the field!" Fury says, once the door is shut. "He's already died once!"

She sits down in the chair across from Fury, staring back at him.

"They neutralized my powers, sir," she tells him. "He was just doing his job."

"Don't _sir_ me. Doing his job, going up against other powered people," Fury says. "He didn't call for backup instead?"

"I'm sure he thought about it," she tells him, swallowing. "I'm sure he weighed it all-"

"No, he panicked," Fury finishes for her, rubbing his hand along his head. "Maybe I should have superheroes for my superheroes?"

He throws his hands up at her when she doesn't reply.

"I don't want another handler" she tells Fury, evenly. "I want Phil."

"I think you mean _Agent_ Coulson," Fury tells her, leaning forward across the desk, and tenting his fingers to point at her.

"I call him Phil so he's different in my head from the other Coulson. From where you brought me. _Sir_."

"Don't think I can't send you back," he tells her, then sits back in his chair. "He's impulsive, you know that, right?"

"Desperate might be a better word," she answers.

Fury rolls his eye at her. "Is that supposed to be better?"

"No," she tells him with a shake of her head. "But it's the truth."

When she's done, she waits for Coulson outside, looking out the window, until the door finally opens and he comes out, frowning to himself.

But his face changes when he sees her waiting there for him. He lights up.

"Hey," she says, finding herself smiling, jabbing at his arm with a fake punch.

"He said that you told him I'm desperate. Is that true?" he asks with a bemused expression.

She closes her eyes in annoyance, but nods her head. "Yeah."

"Good," he says with a mischievous look. "Because I told him you're reckless."

Scoffing at him, she starts to follow him down the hall as he puts his hands into his pockets and walks towards the elevators.

"Yeah, well, don't do that again," she says after him. "Try to get in the middle of my fight. It's dangerous."

He stops walking and turns back around to her, staring.

"Okay."


	6. loners

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy runs into Steve in the gym

Phil is avoiding her.

It's actually been kind of interesting not having him there all the time, looking over her shoulder.

She's been able to spend time by herself. This version of SHIELD is more fraternal than what she's used to.

It makes her realizes how much time she managed to spend alone inside of it.

There were so many missed opportunities. But she doesn't want to think about that right now.

He's mad because she told him to stop, so they don't repeat the past again.

And she knows it's hypocritical of her. _Thanks._ She doesn't care right now.

She hits the punching bag, early in the gym, only the loner types are here.

Good, she can do loner again. It's really easy. It's not like her parents are around on this Earth.

Or that she could go talk to them. The other agents are nice enough, but she's been avoiding it all.

She's been doing it again, letting the past repeat itself, setting herself up again.

She had forgotten how dangerous it was for her to get close to someone.

Kicking at the bag, she sends it flying, and almost makes it knock into another agent.

"Oops, sorry," she says, getting it under control.

"No worries," he replies to her, when she realizes who it is. Rogers. Keeping loner hours himself.

"You get any leads on that AIM shipment, you let me know," he mentions to her, then stops. "How come this is the first time I see you in here?"

"It's because I'm black ops," he tells her. "It's what I'm trained for. I'm off being alone and dark somewhere."

"With Coulson," he tells her with a smile.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asks, stepping in closer to him.

"Well, that's not exactly alone. Does he like to watch you while you sleep?"

"Excuse me?!"

"Sorry, that came out worse than I intended," he tells her, chuckling, raising his hands in surrender. "He likes being around powered people."

"Yes, he likes being around people that want to do some good," she clarifies. "With, their powers."

"Look," he says, lowering his eyes for a moment. "Whatever you've heard about Quake, they were closer than close."

"He doesn't really like to talk about it," Daisy says, changing the subject. "But I'm not her."

"That sounds like something she would say," he tells her, with a sad smile. "I imagine jumping from one universe to another is probably a little disorienting?"

"Kind of like being frozen and waking up and the whole world has changed, I'd imagine," she replies.

"Glad we had this talk," he tells her, slapping his hand against the bag.

"Yeah," she says, watching him walk away.


	7. Lola

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phil and Daisy get Lola and drive.

"What's this about?" she asks him, as he digs into his pants pocket.

He takes the keys out, and holds them out for her.

"I can't drive her."

"What?" she starts to say. "Why?"

"Daisy," he says her name so softly, and it makes something twist inside of her.

She's not sure if he is saying it for her or for the other Daisy. But it's so like-

And she misses him. She misses him so much. But she's missed Phil, too.

That he'll risk so much to put her first. That he would never leave her alone.

She feels less lonely knowing that he's in her world, and she's tried to push him away.

"Okay," she says, taking the keys from him. "Where?"

Lola is in a storage facility, with other SHIELD things. It's not hard to get access, but she was obviously put out of sight and mind.

Dammit. She knows why, she just wasn't thinking past her own pain. "Lola reminds you of-"

"Yes," he says. As she unlocks the doors and he runs his hand gently along the hardtop.

"I know," she tells him, her eyes getting large as she tries to stop the emotions overwhelming her again.

But she opens the door and sits down in the driver's seat. Puts her hand carefully on the wheel and breathes.

He gets in beside her, and watches her sitting there, and when she turns to him, she can see him crying, too.

"I never told her. Daisy. I never told her."

"Let's get out of here," she tells him, putting the keys into the ignition and turning Lola's engine over.

She hums to life and Daisy backs her down the ramp, and then steers them out of the hangar and down the road.

Once they're on the highway, she looks over at him again, how he looks so small and lost.

"You never told her," Daisy repeats to him, watching him rub his hand across his nose. "Why?"

"I was in love with her. And I was her handler. It's not allowed," he says, sniffling, looking at the road ahead. "I wanted to be there with her."

She pushes down harder on the pedal, and she can see that they'll be on the open road soon.

"She knew," she tells him, turning to glance at him. "Phil, look at me. She knew."

He's staring at her, like he's seeing someone else there for a moment, and then smiles to himself, and looks ahead.

"Where are we going?" he asks her, like he's just realized that they're in the middle of nowhere.

"I don't know," she says, gripping the wheel again, feeling it solid beneath her hands.

"But I," she starts, then looks at him one more time. "I feel like doing things that aren't allowed."

He sits up straighter in the seat, and angles his body to face her, as she tries to look at him and drive at the same time.

"And if we get caught," she tells him. "At least we're in this together."

"Yes," he agrees.


	8. lifted away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy and Coulson find solace in each other.

"Oh, wow, this is the best decision I've ever made!"

He stops when her legs aren't trembling anymore, her hand still in his hair, and raises himself up on his elbows to look across her body with a cocky grin.

"No," he says in disbelief, wrinkling his nose. "That can't be right. I mean, I'm really flattered you'd say that, but-"

She sits up on the motel bed and slides her legs to the edge of it, distracting him, making him sit back on his calves as she takes his face in her hands and leans down to kiss him.

"I really meant it. I needed this," she tells him, pressing their reddened lips together. "I needed you."

She can taste herself on his mouth, and she feels his fingers dig into her thighs, as he kisses her back, pushing up towards her and gathering her in his arms until they end up on top of the bed together.

"I didn't think I would ever feel this way again," he says, nuzzling his face against the crook of her neck.

His hand threads fingers through her hair, then he kisses her temple.

Then it starts over again, like the way it started. With them not able to keep their hands off each other for too long.

And it's strange that it doesn't feel new somehow, but something that they had both been waiting for.

She finds the scar over his heart, and draws a line down it with her fingertips rolling him over onto his back until she's straddling him, her fingers moving through the hair on his chest.

"They would want us to have this," he says, watching her, taking a piece of hair that's fallen forward and sliding it back over her shoulder.

The muscles in his stomach tense as she takes his cock in her hands, and strokes it, as she lines up their bodies, and feels him inside of her, her hands gripping his shoulders as she lowers herself on him.

And he's right. It doesn't feel heavy for once. There isn't the sense of loss she's been carrying, it's being lifted away.

"Yeah," she agrees, smiling as she starts to move her hips across his, feeling his heart racing when she presses her chest against his.

They kiss again, and she traps his bottom lip with her teeth, feeling him groan against her mouth as she pins his wrists to the bed, then locks their fingers together and then rides him as he tries not to writhe under her.

It feels like she has been waiting for this for so long, but she didn't know how to name it, like it didn't belong to her yet.

"Daisy."

Her eyes open and he's saying her name again, holding her wrists in his hands, hips moving up towards her, like he wants to go deeper, wants more, too.

She touches her body with her hands, as his eyes follow, then guides his hands to do the same, the soft touch and the calloused palms that she knows, over her stomach and her breasts.

He comes with his face buried against her neck, pulling her down against him as he says her name against her skin, and the tiny dingy room they are in feels buzzing, and alive.

Like it's been transformed. A kind of magic. That leaves her skin feeling damp and tingling.

"It's definitely the best decision I've ever made," he says lazily, curling up against her side, rubbing soothing circles on her hip.

She touches his arm, hand up and down it, and laughs like he's something precious.

He finds her mouth again with his, and kisses her slowly, like he is thinking as he does. Or it's something he has thought about for a long time.

"I haven't really been able to sleep well," she tells him, as his fingers caress her face.

"I know," he answers.

"But I think I might now."

He wraps his body around her, holding her close.


	9. listening in

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy is on a mission and has Coulson on coms.

"What are you wearing?"

"Daisy, the coms are on."

"That's part of what makes this fun. Who do you think is listening in?"

"AIM," he tells her. "HYDRA?"

"They should know the kind of naughty people they're up against," she tells him as she stops at the end of the corridor.

She can hear him tapping on something on the other end of the coms, one of his tells that he's getting a bit distracted.

"What am I looking at here?" she asks, to get him back on solving this problem with her.

She knows he can see the video capture from her helmet of the undulating skin covering the wall panel.

"Some kind of nano-tech force field?" he asks, as she raises her hand towards it, testing her powers against it as it ripples with them.

One of the reasons that Fury had wanted her here was because of her ability to hack tech, set up exploits and backdoors. But also the fact that her powers seems to work very well against this type of technology.

They had lost a lot of agents after they lost their Daisy.

She suspects that this stuff AIM is messing with is alien in origin, although she doesn't remember the Kree having anything like this she's encountered.

But one thing she's sure of is now that they do have it, they'll keep playing with it until it gets the results they want.

"They've already tried to kidnap me several times, so they must have picked up on something," Coulson admits, as he makes small talk while he works.

"They knew you and your Daisy were close, too," she reminds him, trying different modulations to see if it disrupts the structure.

"It just so happens that me and this Daisy are a lot closer," he says warmly. "I'm wearing a suit. Kind of a cliché at this point."

It makes her smile. She thinks it's maybe the first time that she's been able to mention her without him getting off track.

"I'm not getting a match for anything in our database," he reports back to her. "It must be something new."

"It looks organic," she tells him, watching it slide along the wall, like it's searching for something. She opens up her field pouch, takes out one of the snacks he's packed for her and unwraps it, tosses it to the floor.

"That sounds like a line from a horror movie, just before you're turned into an alien host," he warns.

The mass jumps away from the panel, and down towards the candy bar, consuming it.

She has a bad feeling about this.

"It's a good thing I'm wearing my containment suit, then," she tells him, going in for the control panel, getting the door to slide open for her. "It doesn't seem interested in inorganic stuff."

"That sounds like a line to make me get you out of that suit," he tells her. And she can feel his smirk through the coms.

"Hmm," she muses, raising her hand in front of her and stepping over the threshold. "I'm inside."

"Ooh, don't stop now," he tells her.

She laughs into the coms, as he keeps talking.

"Just in case they're listening in."


	10. familiar faces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy is an Inhuman working for SHIELD. And it's complicated.

  
"How was your meeting with the Inhumans?"

"They know about me," she tells him. "Who my mother was."

"Jiaying," he says. "She helped us stop HYDRA. That was how SHIELD found you. You know. It's all in the file."

He watches her frown a little as she looks at the woman singing on the stage beyond.

"Why do I feel like there's a 'but' there?" he asks her.

"I read it," she tells him, lifting the beer off the table. "But, it's just hard to imagine her helping SHIELD."

"What happened to your mother?" he asks, and looks up for a brief moment at the singer, trying to tune her out.

"My parents destroyed a village looking for me," she tells him, taking a drink. "HYDRA got to her, and a Nazi cut her to pieces. My father tried to put her back together."

"Daniel Whitehall," he says distastefully. "He was one of the heads of HYDRA, helping AIM use alien technology, experimentation."

"And here," she sighs. "Both of my parents died fighting HYDRA. Still, you'd think SHIELD could do better than St. Agnes."

"Definitely flawed, but it was to hide you from HYDRA and AIM. You know what they do to Inhumans."

"Yeah," she nods at him. "They still didn't forgive my mother for walking away. Just because she fell in love with a human. They think she died helping SHIELD when she should've been helping them."

"Hmm," he says solemnly, and takes a sip of his drink.

Then, he looks at her like he's grateful to just be beside her, and it does make her remember. But it's a sweet memory.

"All of my life, I've lived with the idea that I'm at the rotten center of everything, that anyone who I love dies because of me."

He stares at her, like he wants to hold her, or touch her, but they're in public, and there are other agents here. It makes her want to be alone with him.

"Mind if we join you?"

They look up and see Dr. Garner and Agent May standing beside their table, May leaning casually into Andrew now that they're off the clock.

"Only if you promise not to bring up anything related to work," Daisy tells him.

"Doctor-patient privilege," Andrew promises. "I do so solemnly swear, to only talk about personal stuff off the clock. Ask Melinda."

"I can't promise he won't talk about our kids," she tells her, smiling at Andrew. "Just say something if it gets too annoying."

She already knew about the rest of the team. It took a few weeks, but she had to look, just out of curiosity.

Fitz had been recruited into AIM fairly early, his father having a connection with Holden Radcliffe, who was one of their founders.

Mack still had his assignment on the Iliad, and was in charge of SHIELD's monolith initiative. He hadn't met Elena, and her powers were still dormant.

Simmons is a biospecialist working in SHIELD's alien research division. Ward was still HYDRA.

Coulson and May go way back, but once he was put on the Welcome Wagon, his focus became centered on recruiting powered people.

"Got room for one more?"

Daisy blinks twice, like she does every time, then smiles as Antoine Triplett walks up to them.

"Hey, gorgeous," he says to her. "I hope Coulson's treating you all right?"

Trip laughs at Coulson's expression and sidles up to the table next to him.

"You know, you're lucky you're so good looking," Coulson deadpans.

She loves to hear Trip's laugh.


	11. the letter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy shares Coulson's letter with Phil.

"I know how this might seem."

"That you want to celebrate the day that we met? The same day I lost Coulson?"

She can see her breath hang in front of her as they sit in the surveillance van, waiting on some movement at the brownstone down the block.

"No," Phil says slowly, turning to look at her, only lit up by the dashboard lights. "I was thinking you might want to have a day of remembrance."

She remembers that Phil has a grave he can visit. All that is left are her memories.

And a letter.

The letter she keeps close, always.

"He made me choose, after all," she tells Phil, leaning across the console between them to touch his hand, briefly. "Not between life or death for him, but how I choose to be loved. It's the only thing that keeps me from being angry."

"Then I'm grateful to him. Even more than I realized," Phil answers, squeezing her gloved fingers.

"Do you want to read it?" she asks him, shuffling around to face him. "The letter he wrote me?"

"I can't lie," he tells her, looking out at the street again briefly before staring back at her. "I've always been curious, from the moment I knew it existed."

She starts to unzip her jacket, and then dips her fingers down into her shirt, moving her bra to the side to pull out the piece of folded paper.

"Over your heart?" he asks her, as she unfolds it slowly, well-worn, and hands it to him.

Nodding, she hands it across to him, and then she reaches up to flip on the overhead light.

He just stares at it for a moment, looking at the handwriting. And it's exactly like his. She knows this has to be surreal for him.

But she's had her own instances of the surreal since she's been here.

Particularly since people seem to think that her and Phil would settle into the same relationship he had with the Daisy they all knew.

Because she is so much like her in so many ways, they take it for granted. They all do.

And miss how unlike her she is, in other ways they don't understand.

But Phil gets it.

"He loved you. So much," he tells her, folding the letter back up when he's done. "It won't sound the same, but when I say that I know everything that he saw in you is absolutely true-"

"It wasn't without its complications," she says with a small smile, taking the letter from him, and putting it back in place.

Even now, it still makes her uncomfortable being lavished with so much careful attention. She has to work against her own thoughts.

But she knows that she is loved, in a way she only thought would happen to her once. It seems impossible the way that it happened, but then she remembers him saying to her-

"Did you really think after everything we've been through, you and me, that there was any universe in which I left you behind?"

When she looks up at him, he's studying her face, like he's known her, always.

The universe is a strange and wonderful place.

"This has its complications too," he reminds her, with a smirk.

"Our secret?" she asks him, fighting a smile of her own, glancing back down the street, keeping the mission in mind.

"After we make our target, there might be time for coffee," she tells him, adjusting her beanie to cover the top of her ears.

"I'd love a coffee."


	12. a good boy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coulson writes Daisy's field report.

His finger brushes away a loose strand of her hair, in a quick, efficient movement.

Just letting it slip through his fingers before turning it loose.

A flash of memory. Of a hand on her head, stroking her hair, a soothing gesture to comfort her.

It's been on her mind a lot, lately. How much they are alike.

Maybe it's not fair to him, but it's hard to ignore, and she has caught him doing the same, too.

At least she thinks she has. 

He started by bringing her a double-latte, like it was a kind of test. Instead of the black coffee they usually drink before missions.

The way he stared when she thanked him, and grabbed it greedily and sucked it down while they walked through the Hub.

Is it wrong to believe that maybe they somehow _are_ the same person?

_That they have been returned to each other?_

That even if something happens to them here, that they will be returned to each other over and over again?

Her parents were something like that, but it didn't end well. Not the way she had let the tinest bit of herself hope.

Even her mother, who seemed like she could go on forever, did not.

He drops his hand to the back of her chair, fingers restless, and sighs.

Another thing is that all the sneaking around is wearing out its welcome.

He lied to Fury and said he was helping her get a stain out when her red sweater was draped over the chair in his quarters.

They decided Fury might believe Phil is persistent enough to try to get a stain out of his favorite superhero's sweater.

He _might_.

"I'm never going to finish my field report," she tells him, pausing her typing at the laptop and turning to him.

The smile on his face is careful, a little guarded, but curious at the same time.

"Is that why I'm here?" he asks, leaning over in the chair beside her. "To do your field report?"

She drags her bottom lip between her teeth and flashes her eyes around the conference room.

It's empty. And late. But it's SHIELD. There's _always_ someone around.

"Do you wanna do my field report?" she asks, sliding the laptop across the table towards him.

"Sure," he says, helpfully, lowering his chin to look down at the screen so he can read through it.

Of course, he doesn't want to do her field report. _No one_ wants to do field reports.

She leans in closer to him to get a better look, shoulder to shoulder now.

The freckles that you don't notice at first. His eyelashes. She pretends to look at the screen when she hears footsteps in the hallway.

"I'm not sure about some of the details," she tells him loudly, glancing up again at the doorway. "Maybe you can help _refresh_ my memory?"

He blinks over at her, twice, because he knows perfectly well she remembers all of it, then sucks in a breath.

Her hand is resting on his thigh, underneath the table, high and far enough inside that she actually managed to wipe the cocky look off his face.

She gives him a _very_ serious look.

"Start from the beginning," she says slowly, like it's an order, fluttering her eyes at him.

His tongue peeks out from between his lips, and she knows he wants to make sure. He wants to check that no one is watching.

But he doesn't, he keeps his eyes fixed on her, like a good boy.

(Phil really is such a good boy.)

 


	13. the new normal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy is attacked and Coulson panics.

It wasn't really supposed to go this way.

But that's what you say to yourself when you're constantly avoiding the thought: you're gonna die today.

She has lacerations on her side, there is blood because the nanotech AIM has been upgrading got underneath her suit.

Under her skin.

Remote-controlled, and moving in knife-sharp angles. The pain was almost unbearable.

Cutting into her. She knows who is responsible.

The retro weapons that Trip had were lo-fi enough that they could disrupt the little assholes without being manipulated by them.

They thought they had cleaned them all up, but they didn't return to the Hub, she didn't want to be poked and prodded at by the alien tech division again.

Now her field suit is in pieces on the floor, and Phil is inside of her, helping her push past the pain.

She digs her nails into his back, not to hurt him, just possessively, and he closes his eyes and his mouth drops open, even as he grinds against her.

It's all adrenaline for him, but it's also the sharpness of fear, and desperation to be close to her however she will have him.

He won't be able to come like this, she feels a little guilty. Why, she's not sure, because he won't mind.

But they'll deal with that later.

"Oh, shit!"

"Daisy?" he stops in a panic and tries to pull back until she stops him with a hand on his arm.

She can't stand the idea of his hands and his body being separated from her right now. Of letting go.

"These things are everywhere!" she complains, sitting up and taking the small object from where it's stuck to her ass and dumping it safely further away on the tabletop.

He turns her over quickly, and presses his fingers to her skin, making sure that it's not going to keep bleeding.

It makes her laugh, the absurdity of how they must look, her on the safehouse kitchen table holding onto him, with him palming her ass.

"It's not funny," he tells her, frowning, trying to catch his breath and slowing down, rubbing her behind gently.

He's distracted now, looking around the room like everything is wrong. "Can we-" he starts to say. 

Then he's down on the floor, picking up her costume and the ointment tube and bandages, gathering them all up in his arms.

He doesn't want to do this, anymore. He wants things to be normal, and it's impossible.

She remembers that about him, how he wrestled with that. The way he saw his family changed when he lost his father.

Nothing was ever normal again.

"Phil," she says, getting off the table with a wince, and bending down to be next to him. "Let me help you."

The look on his face as he stares up at her is so conflicted. Like he's a little lost. 

"You-" he sputters. "I'm supposed to help you," he nods at her, his eyes searching her face, getting wetter by the moment.

"It's okay," she smiles at him. "We can help each other."

He thanks her for zipping his pants when he stands.


	14. stronger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy and Coulson spar.

"Question."

She lets him get up off the mat, get to his feet again.

"Were you always stronger?" he asks. He's trying to push through but a little frustrated with how this is going.

This is about him doubting himself. Comparing himself. Because he doesn't want to be weak for her. For it to compromise her.

"No," she answers. "Powers don't make you stronger."

He makes a few moves that she's seen before, that she can anticipate. It was Fury's idea, after all, for her to train him.

She's still trying to figure that one out because it seems to go against all the rules SHIELD has in place.

"I don't mean your powers," he tells her, backing away from her, circling. 

"He always thought that I was stronger than he was," she admits and lowers her defenses. Literally. "He was wrong."

He goes for the advantage now that she's left herself open, she lets him get in close to her, his leg in between hers to trip and bring her down with him to the mats.

"No he wasn't," he insists. "You know that's not true."

She remembers how Coulson would keep so many things behind his walls.

And Phil, he can't for very long, even if he tries.

Sometimes it's easier for her to retreat to another place, to the life she had before this one.

It makes sense now, why he did that. It makes her understand him more, but she also knows how that will end.

It's easy for her to push him up off of her, to scissor her legs to flip him so that she's on top.

Physically, she _is_ stronger than him.

After all of her years of intensive training, her focus on earning her right to be in the field, then being responsible for others. It forced her body to change.

In different ways than getting her powers.

He seems to be really appreciative of it, too, but then Steve did try to warn her when they were in the gym a few months back.

"You have a thing for powered people?" she asks him in a teasing voice, watching him try to strain against her to get up.

It seems to bother him a little at first, being called out in public. Then it becomes obvious the longer he thinks about it, the more assertive he's going to be about his right to his own ideas about this

It's a familiar stubborn streak, and she knows him well enough that it goes deeper than his genuine curiosity and sense of wonder.

"It's not what you think," he tells her.

Then he stops fighting and lets his head hit the mat, the sweat gathered in the short hair along his temples, as he breathes, his skin is practically glistening and maybe this is his way of trying to distract her.

If so, it's definitely working.

"All of that power," he goes on. "And you just want to help other people. It made you more compassionate, not less. It's just amazing. I would give you more if I could."

She watches him smile at her and starts to smile with him because it sounds like something Coulson would say. He always wanted to give her _more_.

"There is such a thing as too much of a good thing, you know that right?" she warns him, half-serious.

"With most things, yes," he says, then lowers his tone. "But not you."

Her face goes hot and she can feel herself starting to flush at this kind of naked praise he loves to give her, and it makes her turn shy and needy, and suddenly aware that they're not alone.

They can both hear someone on the other side of the gym, far enough away, but close enough that they don't have real privacy.

And it's a shame to have to end this just so they can still hold on to their secret because it feels so nice.

When she's standing up again, she offers him her hand and helps pull him to his feet so they're toe-to-toe.

"Let's keep going," she tells him, tapping him on the shoulder again with her fist playfully.

"Coulson. When are you going to get your own special suit?"

They both look up to see Steve and Trip crossing the mats towards them, dressed in their workout clothes.

"I guess Fury wants us mere mortals to be able to hold our own out there," Coulson says, trying to gather up a smirk and failing. "Do I need a suit?"

Steve just gives Daisy a knowing look. She locks eyes with him for a moment, then looks over at Trip.

"We come down here a few times a month," Trip explains. "So we can trade Howling Commando stories and pretend to look busy. I'm not a sidekick or anything."

Coulson looks only slightly offended at the idea, while Trip sips on his bottle of water.

Then Sharon appears between them, her arms propped on each of their shoulders.

"Three against two?" she grins. "Seems like fun odds."

 


	15. the monkey in the room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy and Coulson capture one of AIM's experiments.

"Oh, but it's just adorable! And so tiny."

Daisy frowns and crosses her arms and notices the intensity with which Phil is profiling right now.

"It's a symbol," Daisy reminds her. "Of his experimentation without thought or consequence. He does this to _people_."

They all look down at the small monkey, unconscious on the lab table, the nano-pack attached to its back, wires feeding the chemical nano-compound into its brain.

"Diabolical but clever," Simmons says, staring at the 3D diagnostic, and turning the image in her hand. "Enhancement to Broca's area while releasing an inhibitor to cognitive function. I suspect he has a limited knowledge of biology. It's almost child-like in its execution."

"Or, he doesn't care about the biology part of it," Daisy snaps, and Phil turns sharply to stare at her, as Simmons continues her diagnosis.

"Agent Johnson, a word?" he says, motioning towards the hallway.

Once she has followed him out, dragging her feet a little, he tilts his head at her and tries to read her, giving her a chance to talk.

"It's just," she starts, after breaking eye contact with him. "The other one, the one I knew, he cut me open. He experimented on me."

She watches as his eyes get wider, a range of emotions flashing over his face, the sharp look of anger, but he stays calm at the moment.

That's why Fury had put him in charge of the Welcome Wagon in the beginning.

There was a lot of misunderstanding about powered people, and he needed someone who cared, not reacted.

"He's responsible for that attack on you, isn't he?" he asks, adding it up. "When you insisted on the safehouse. Instead of coming here."

"Yes," she says, then starts to doubt herself. "I mean, I can't say for sure. It just feels like him. I don't know how to explain it."

"You shouldn't have to," he tells her. "Not if you're not ready."

Simmons joins them out in the hallway, taking off her surgical gloves, and joins the conversation without missing a beat.

"And so, in summary, he made a talking monkey. Thankfully, it's far too crude to be used on humans. The implant surgeries are at least several years old based on the scar tissue, so he could've developed it further."

"What about on Inhumans?" Daisy asks her, raising her eyebrows.

 "Yes," she slowly answers. "I imagine he would use it on Inhumans if he used it on humans, of course."

"Great," Daisy replies, shaking her head and walking away from them, down the hallway.

"What is it?" Phil asks her, catching up with her. "It's not just him, is it? It's-"

"They were together," Daisy tells him, moving closer so that agents passing by them would have to work hard to hear. "And she backed up what he did, just like she's doing now."

"I mean, I have to say," he answers. "She seems more than a little detached. Are you suggesting that they might-"

"They went to the same university together," she answers him. "Briefly. Before they both went their separate ways they knew each other. I read her file."

"Fury agrees they're always one step ahead of us. AIM publicly shed their HYDRA associations decades ago, but, that's not exactly the real story is it?"

"Funding elaborate space-travel programs, developing vaccines only they can distribute?" she adds. "Population control administered by a corporation? Sure, sounds really benign."

"I can have someone look into it," he says, as they both start walking again. She starts to relax knowing that she's not losing it thinking about this.

"No." She shakes her head. "I need more evidence. There's already enough tension between SHIELD and Inhumans, I don't want to make it worse."

"You're not making this worse, Daisy," he tells her softly. "Fury will back you."

"I can't let this be Fury's problem," she tells him. "I know what he'll do, and that means a lot, but I don't want him to have to take that risk and get all the heat for it."

"And you don't want to have to fall in line."

"Have I ever been good at that?" she asks, holding the exit door at the end of the hallway open for him. "Coming?"

He gives her a satisfied smirk and goes first.

Then they take the stairway together a few floors down to talk alone.


	16. something blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy lets Phil know what she thinks of his new field suit.

"Fury thought these were practical in the field to protect from nano-attacks."

She leans forward to see if their pilot is paying them any mind before she responds.

"I have an attack coming on right now."

"It's a good thing I've been training the past two months," he tells her over his shoulder, turning away and reaching to stow the case in the compartment above.

Pretty obvious, but it works, and she leans back in her seat and gets a good look at the dark blue uniform hugging his curves.

She's used to seeing him in suiting, which has its own appeal. Layers and steps that shed his SHIELD persona. And she's obviously seen him without a stitch. 

Okay, she gets it now. He's right about the suit thing.

"Did you happen to run into Steve on the Illiad?" she asks him, crossing her legs and then holding onto her knee.

"And risk standing next to Mack in this getup?" he chuckles, shaking his head. "No way."

It's cute that he gets so flustered about his obvious appreciation of men, and he comes and sits in the empty seat next to her, then smiles like he's exactly where he should be.

She likes that even more, and reaches between them, taking his hand, brushing her fingers against the exposed skin on his wrist, turning it over to pretend to look at the suit's tech fabric.

"It's a lot like yours," he says, swallowing. Licking his bottom lip as he watches her fingers draw along the contours of the fabric up his arm.

"Mine can be a little tricky," she tells him, moving across his shoulder, up his chest, to where there's a closure at his throat. "How easy is it to get this thing on? Or off?"

His eyes look up toward the cockpit for a moment. "It can get off pretty easily," he says with a smirk.

Then his cheeks go pink as he meets her eyes directly. The heavy breathing through his nose.

Phil can be so chill in the middle of a firefight, but somehow this is what always makes him come unraveled.

The drop off point isn't for another twenty minutes as the Quinjet flies. And they've both been buried in paperwork the last couple of weeks.

She feels a little deprived of him, physically, to be specific, and she's guessing by his expression the feeling is mutual.

"I'm _very_ impressed," she tells him and watches his jaw start to tick. "How long has it taken you to break it in?"

"Break it in?" he repeats, as his voice pitches higher. "It is a little uncomfortable at first." She can see his shoulders start to relax a little now that he knows where this is going. "Like most new things."

"Yeah, I remember it being a lot of work to get in and out the first time. And then, one day, it just seemed like second nature."

"When did you get your first suit?" he asks resting his hands on his thighs.

"I cosplayed once outside of Stark Tower," she admits, looking at the pockets attached to his belt. "It was just to get intel. Russian hacker. But you. You were in SHIELD right out of high school, right?"

"I dropped out of college to join," he agrees, watching her fingers carefully start to open and close the pockets like she's searching through them. "The suits were to make me look buttoned up. I was trying to be taken seriously. Like the older agents. They had all these degrees."

"To make a good impression," she nods. "On Fury."

"Fury was everything I wasn't. He was _cool_." Phil stares at her with his blue eyes -the suit makes them look bluer- then drops his gaze to smile privately at the memory, looking up at her behind a flutter of eyelashes.

"You still didn't tell me when you wore your suit for the first time."

"Tried different things here and there. You have to remember, I've spent most of my life in SHIELD," he answers reflectively. "I guess you could say this is really the first time."

He lifts his hand and then sets it on her shoulder. "I feel like I know your suit inside and out."

"So do I."

She can't remember after if she even checked before she kissed him or not.

Just that she angled him so his back was to the pilot's cabin and then moved in, registering his shock and surprise.

She doesn't remember the feeling of longing, that it would have to be enough for the moment.

What she remembers most is that when she tried to pull away, how he wouldn't let go.

The way it made her feel as he kissed her back.


	17. Providence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy takes Phil to some old stomping grounds.

"How did you know about this base?" 

"I know about a lot of things you don't," she teases him, crouching behind the rocks. "Give me your SHIELD badge."

"Fair enough," he mentions, reaching into his pouch to hand it over, staring around at the landscape. "I guess it's better than freezing to death out here."

"We'll ditch AIM, too," she says, looking back the way they came. "I'll explain to Fury later."

"Hey!" he tries to reach for her as she holds out the badge and steps out from their hiding spot, the base's weapon training on her.

"I'm Agent Daisy Johnson. I'm here with Phil Coulson. We're Agents of SHIELD!" she announces and glances over at Coulson, his eyes fixated on his glowing badge. 

The turret gun swivels and deactivates.

"Welcome Agents."

The automated voice makes its announcement and the side of the mountain opens. Phil is already beside her, following her inside as they crunch through the fresh snowfall.

Daisy waits until the agent greeting them turns the corner, and folds up Phil's badge and hands it to him.

"Wowzers. You're Quake!" the man exclaims, holding out his hands at her. "My brother is going to fr-eak!"

"It's Agent Johnson," she says curtly, brushing at the snow sticking to her field suit.

"Totally. Got it, AJ," he replies, moving quickly closer to them and offering a handshake. "It's nice to meet you. We do have some security protocols, of course. And then, everyone gets a lanyard!"

Phil frowns slightly and exchanges a look with her as they follow after him. "What kind of protocols?"

"I am Eric Koenig," he tells them, leading them further into the base. "Level 6. Kind of pared-down operation of one here," he says as he gives them a tour of the empty base.

"We're Level 7," Phil tells him. "Do you have a way of letting us contact Fury?"

"I have very strict orders," he says, spinning back around to look at them. "And that suit is cool," he says, pointing at Phil's blue field suit. "Is that new issue stuff?"

"When was the last time you were out-" Phil starts to ask, and Daisy shakes her head.

"I'm going to need to take Qua- Agent Johnson here first," he tells them, stopping in front of a door. "There is a commissary just down the hall, Agent, so, help yourself."

Daisy gives Phil a small smile, and steps into the room after Koenig as the door closes and she sees the chair. 

"This works like a lie detector," he tells her. "You tell the truth, and we've got no problems."

"Got it," she says, sitting down in the chair and letting him set up the controls. "Hey, didn't Romanoff beat this chair? That's what I heard."

"Like Fury would tell!" he laughs, then makes his way to the controls.

"Full name, please."

"Daisy Johnson."

"No middle name?" he asks, then waves the question away. "Have you ever been married?"

"No."

"This is a dark base, that Fury has classified as need-to-know only. So, why are you here?" he asks her.

"The mission," she blurts out and watches Koenig react to the lie. "I mean, Phil. Agent Coulson. AIM shot down our quinjet on a mission. It's complicated."

"Sounds like it!" he says pleasantly, then reaches under the table and puts a pistol on top of it. "But I'm going to need you to explain anyway."

"I've been on this base before," she tells him, quickly. "On another Earth. I'm familiar with the protocols and its purpose."

"Kooky," he replies, looking at the readout on the table, puzzled. "But, you're not lying. You know, after you reappeared again, my brother swore you were a robot."

"Great," she rolls her eyes watching him stare down at the monitor. "Hey, that's not a real question, right?"

"Let's get you a lanyard. And then get your very special agent friend to take a seat."

"Fine," she says, stepping up out of the chair, staring at him a little longer than necessary. 

It's always strange seeing someone they lost still alive here. In a way, it gives her hope.

"And afterward, I want to hear all about this alternative universe thing."

"Yeah, no one's supposed to know about that," she tells him, as he goes to press the button to open the door.

"Don't worry," he says with a smile. "Your secret is safe with me."

She frowns a minute, wondering exactly what he means by that.

They find Phil in the commissary, already working on a second cup of coffee.


	18. extraction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy and Coulson lay low on Providence base for a few days.

Fury says to stay put for a couple of days, so it would look like they were extracted, instead of escaping to one of his most secret bases.

He wasn't exactly pleased that Daisy had found this particular one, even after the full explanation.

"You know, you probably know stuff Fury doesn't," Phil tells her, as they look through the pantry. "Definitely about Inhumans, but, other things."

"Hey, last time, he was pissed you didn't call for backup," she reminds him. "I found the backup."

"And now we're stuck here," he says. "In a holding pattern. This whole empty base all to ourselves. Who knows what we'll find in those dark corners?"

"Koenig already suspects our relationship isn't exactly regulation," she tells him, as he leans across her, brushing their bodies together intentionally.

"Found something," he says, stepping back, but only just enough so that they're very close, holding up the box to her with a seductive expression. "Crunch Berry."

"You're ridiculous," she grins, taking the box from him and setting it back on the shelf, pulling him against her by his sweatshirt, kissing him fast and dirty.

He sighs against her open mouth. She can feel him already concentrating, his fingers tugging on the string of her sweats until the crash and they see a stack of cans rolling around on the floor.

"Is everything okay in here?" Koenig says, swinging open the door, as they both jump.

"How did you know we were in here?" Phil asks, annoyed, eventually turning around over his shoulder.

"He tracks us with our lanyards," she remembers shaking her head, bending down to pick up the cans.

"Hey, no fair!" Koenig protests, holding up the pad in his hand. "That's AU cheating. What were you guys doing in here, anyway?"

"Sparring," Daisy says, handing a can up to Phil. "I'm pretty much his S.O."

"You were sparring. In the supply closet," Koenig replies suspiciously, looking at both of them, at him putting the cans back on the shelves.

"She's basically my S.O.," Phil repeats with a smirk. "We needed supplies. She uses her powers...sometimes."

"Now that I have to see," he says excitedly, clutching at the tablet. "We have a gym, a little out of date. There might be a Thighmaster. I'll get it ready."

She nods and smiles at him as he leaves them alone in the closet again.

Phil takes the box of cereal and opens it up, starts to munch on it. "I meant that sometimes you use your powers when we-"

"He'll be distracted now," she tells him, taking her lanyard off, and dangling it on the edge of her finger.

"I'm sure there's a nearby dark corner that hasn't been used in awhile," he says, slipping off his lanyard and hooking it on the shelving.

He seals up the box of cereal up and tucks it under his arm.

"What's that for?" she asks him, raising her eyebrows.

"After," he says, smiling askew. "You might be hungry?"

She quickly hangs her lanyard up and he grabs her hand as they sneak out into the hallway.

"We never get away with this kind of stuff on the other base," he tells her when they find the open room.

"Maybe we should request a permanent transfer?"

They watch the scenery change on the moving wall for a moment, the only thing illuminating the room.

The color tracing over his body as he pulls the sweatshirt off over his head, dropping it to the floor.

Her Phil.

This time, she goes for the string of his sweatpants first, tugging him in closer to her, turning him so that he's propped against the edge of a dusty desk.

She gets his cock free, bouncing loose and half-hard as she gets him there the rest of the way with her hand, as she gets comfortable in the chair.

Watching, with her mouth on him, as his hands sift through her hair, his face changing colors with the window as he throws his head back.

With just the lightest touch of her powers.

"C'mon," she says, standing to tug up his sweatpants, as he leans into her to kiss her, wrapping his legs around her hips.

"We can't be gone for too long."


End file.
